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From person to person

The changed state of the jobs market has also had consequences for the Kunsthaus Personnel Office. Just recently we advertised an interesting position relating to the organization of exhibitions. Of course we were expecting plenty of applications, but not the 600 we received. Sorting through 600 applications, selecting a number of suitable candidates, conducting interviews and then sending out 599 rejections, pushed us to the limits of our capacity and beyond. Luckily, staff turnover at the Kunsthaus Zurich is low, so that it isn’t often that we have to deal with such a flood of paperwork. Nonetheless, we still don’t have the time to reply to the, on average, 20 speculative applications we receive each week, as there are seldom vacancies. Current vacant positions can be found on our websitehttp://www.kunsthaus.ch. For some time now we have also been offering those participating in projects for the unemployed the chance to take a look behind the scenes for a certain period and an opportunity to use or enhance their specialist knowledge.

All of the 170 staff currently employed are given an informative introduction to each new exhibition by the curators. Once every two years we also organize a day trip for staff – a visit to a museum in another Swiss city, or a well-known destination such as the Rigi – and information events (e.g. about the renovation work) or parties, as a way of saying thank you to those who work here. Given the inexorable rise of an e-mail culture, “face to face” dialogue is becoming ever more important. However, the Kunsthaus is a “lean” organization with many staff fulfilling more than one function.